Strike by school secretaries and caretakers over pay and pensions due to begin next Thursday

The strike by more than 2,500 secretaries and caretakers from next Thursday coincides with the return to school of tens of thousands of students after the summer break.

With just a week to go until strike action by school secretaries and caretakers, the Department of Education still hopes the Workplace Relations Commission can intervene.

The strike by more than 2,500 secretaries and caretakers from next Thursday coincides with the return to school of tens of thousands of students after the summer break. It is unclear how much the industrial action could disrupt school activities, particularly if other school staff choose not cross the picket-line.

Trade union Fórsa claims school secretaries and caretakers have been excluded from the Single Public Service Pension Scheme and denied occupational sick leave and bereavement leave. 

This followed a 2023 agreement between both the union and the Department of Public Expenditure, which brought school secretaries into a centralised public payroll system and saw pay improvements.

It also claims caretakers remain at €13 an hour — which has not changed since 2019 — and are still awaiting a implementation of a “comparable pay deal".

“It’s the first time that both secretaries and caretakers are taking strike action, and it’s continuous, it’s indefinite," Fórsa's head of education Andy Pike told the Irish Examiner.

“There will be problems, I’m sure unfortunately, but we don’t know yet what the extent of the running of the operations of the schools will be compromised. We won’t know until it happens.”

He said the union was seeking parity and equality in pensions and employment conditions for school secretaries and caretakers.

“The minister for education is the paymaster and sets the terms and conditions of employment for all such staff, including granting access to the Single Public Service Pension Scheme," he said.

“They work in the same schools, under the same boards of management, on the same department payroll as teachers and SNAs, but they are treated as second-class staff in every material way."

Mr Pike said the union members had lost faith in “Government commitments” following a series of refusals by the Department of Public Expenditure to even discuss pension access.

The Department of Education said it had referred the matter to the Workplace Relations Commission "for assistance in resolving the dispute" and "will continue to engage with all parties in the coming period".